Guardian's benefits playbook helps leaders tell a 'benefits story'

• Key insight: Discover how packaging benefits around life moments boosts utilization and perceived value.
• Supporting data: Fewer than 40% of employees rate benefits communication as effective.
• Forward look: Managers and ERGs can become important channels for benefits communication and personalized support.
  Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review

Offering good benefits is great, but it's how they are presented that may matter most. 

Fewer than four in 10 employees feel benefits education and communication are managed effectively, according to mutual insurance company Guardian. This leads to underutilization of offerings and unnecessary stress, especially around more complex areas such as leave. 

The company's advice for benefit leaders is to help workers connect the dots between offerings and policies that support them through various life stages in every way, from staying healthy to handling a crisis.     

"You spend time and energy putting together packages that are meaningful for your employees, but if you don't take the time to help them understand how those benefits fit together, they don't understand the value you're bringing to them," Rachel Chamberlin, head of group benefits enrollment at Guardian, said in the company's recent webinar, The New Benefits Playbook: Maximizing value for today's workforce. 

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Make benefits part of each employee's 'story'

Benefit leaders can show how offerings and policies work together by packaging them in terms of life's big moments, says Melissa Rothchild, chief marketing officer, group benefits at Guardian. For example, rather than listing out family-focused benefits in a piecemeal manner, present them as a package and communicate them as a story of support for every phase, she says. 

"When employees understand how benefits support their specific life needs, they are more likely to value and use them," she says, urging leaders to emphasize the "why." Caregiving support, for instance, is offered, "so that you can find the right child care and return to work feeling confident."

Whenever possible, employees should be encouraged to share stories about benefits they've used, Rothchild says. Town halls, employee resource group (ERG) meetings, short videos and company social media posts are all platforms for workers to relay real experiences.         

"Somebody had an accident skiing; talk about how they use their accident benefits. Someone just had a baby; talk about how they used their hospital benefits to supplement the cost of that. Someone's parent is going through a cancer diagnosis; share how their benefits help them through that," she says. "Storytelling is so much more effective than anything else you could do to get employee engagement."    

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The importance of internal partnerships

Building partnerships with employee-facing leadership and groups, particularly managers and ERGs, can bring benefit leaders' communication and utilization efforts to a whole new level, says Rothchild. 

Guardian's research shows that 56% of employees say manager support made a positive impact on their leave experience, and those with a positive leave experience are 75% more likely to stay with their employer for five or more years. Guardian offers training for managers on how to feel comfortable with questions around leave, and the role they play from the time an employee prepares to leave through when they return.

ERGs can be particularly strong allies for benefit leaders, as they provide a comfortable environment for peers to open up, Rothchild explains. Guardian established a caregiving ERG last year, which she says has been very effective in creating a common ground for people from different generations to discuss what they are going through, and a great opportunity for benefit leaders to connect with them. 

"It's a self-built internal focus group that you could go to and run ideas by, and get great feedback from," says Rothchild. The insight these groups can provide on workforce demographics and areas of needed support allows benefit leaders to better customize communication and offerings to specific populations, regions, and other defining categories within their workforce, she says.   

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The more benefit leaders consistently utilize multiple communication channels and other internal company voices, the better chance they have of turning individual offerings into an appreciated part of the employee experience. 

"Effective education requires year round commitment and reminding people the benefits are there when they need them," Rothchild says. "Connect the dots in a way that is meaningful for the employee to then think about how and when they should use those benefits."